The First Lich Lord

Chapter 41

As we headed deeper into the thick forest, nearing a bit of a clearing, movement in the surrounding trees increased. Often, they werent much more than blurs of creatures darting from tree to tree. But sometimes, the yellow eyes of a wolf gleamed, watching us.

Theyre coming, I said, lowering Mercy into a guard position. Get up that treewere about to be surrounded. Ill keep them from climbing after you while you do your thing.

Wed discussed this plan before entering the forest. Maxwell was a caster-type fighter, so he needed time to work. I was a melee fighter, and on top of that, should be resistant to the slashing and biting attacks from the werewolves. Even with the strange dark flesh that was starting to cover my skeletal body, it still seemed highly resistant to anything but bludgeoning attacks.

I boosted Maxwell up in the tree where he settled in on the lowest branches. I turned my attention to the incoming foestwo werewolves running straight for me, flanked by three wolves.

I shifted my blade into a broad tip spearhead with a cross guard, and held a defensive posture. At the last second, I planted it and let one of the wolves impale itself. The spear cut deep into its chest down to the cross guard. Though that took care of one, it left me open to attack, and ripping claws started tearing at me.

I let the attack score me, shredding my cloak. I dove to the side, ripping my spear free and leaving a gaping wound in the wolfs chest. Stinging pain coursed through my body, despite my resistance to slashing based attacks. As I rolled to my feet, I spun my blade-staff into a defensive posture, shifting the head into a slender blade ideal for rending attacks.

The first note from Maxwell chimed out in a thumping beat that throbbed through the forest. I didnt feel the effects of the sound-based magic, but I saw it in the fur on the wolves. The danger of Maxwells magic was that it made a lot of noise and would no doubt attract any monsters in the area.

The werewolves lunged. My spinning blade-staff deflected their strikes, sending them reeling with deep slashes that festered with necrotic disease.

The blade-staff was a powerful defensive weapon in open areas like this, but I was greatly outnumbered.

A wolf came at me from the side and I whirled to face it. Even before I could land a blow, there was a cluster of discordant sounds that burst from Maxwell, sending the wolf tumbling.

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One of the werewolves turned their gleaming eyes on Maxwells tree. With their powerful legs, they could easily reach Maxwell. As it crouched to leap, I threw my spear. The sharp blade punched clear through the back of the werewolf and pinned it to the tree.

Not exactly smart, since it left me without a weapon, surrounded by enemies.

A new note joined Maxwells thumping beat, a base lineI couldnt quite name the song, though it was familiar. I balled my fists, and as the first werewolf lunged, I dove around him.

As I came up, the wolf snarled and attacked again. A well-placed uppercut careened it off course and out of my way. The pinned werewolf was trying to extract itself from my blade-staff, I was amazed it was still alive. I reached for the shaft, and the weight of another wolf landed on my back.

Just barely grasping my hand around the shaft of Mercy, I yanked it from the tree and sliced through the pinned wolf as I tumbled away with the wolf carrying me down. I landed on my stomach, the wolf now on top of me, but I had my weapon. The beast bit into the back of my neck, but the powerful magic that animated me resisted. I blindly grabbed Mercy near the blade and stabbed backward until I heard a yelp.

As the weight lifted, I rolled onto my back just in time to see one of the werewolves closing in. It leapt into the air, and I managed to plant my blade into its chest as it barreled down at me. The blade cut through, and without a cross guard to stop its momentum, its weight crashed down on me and a few of my bones cracked.

Catching a bit of luck, the werewolf had been impaled through the heart. It spasmed in death as I pushed it off. Getting to my feet, I took stockthe werewolf I had pinned to the tree was sprawled on the ground, cut near in half, and this one wasnt getting back up on its own. All that was left were three wolves snarling and gnashing at me.

As I backed up toward the tree Maxwell was in, his song picked up a new tone, and a guitar solo ripped out, releasing a stream of sonic energy. As Maxwell shredded a guitar made out of blue magic, his powerful sonic attack ripped apart the wolves and they quit moving.

Howling picked up in the distance. While things were going according to plan, we worried the noise would draw in too many at once. Knowing wed be outnumbered, Maxwell kept his song focused on slowing the creatures as much as he could.

When more of the creatures started closing in, he started a new beat, opening with a piano solo from a familiar song, and Maxwell belted out Black Parade.

Maxwells abilities had two different modes. The first was a powerful short-range effect that could change the course of a fight. The second was a large area of effect songwhat he was doing now. It took longer to build up, but could change the flow of the battle. Exactly what we needed.

The wolves dashing through the trees moved in time with the song, a subconscious effect, and the predictable movements allowed me to quickly dispatch any who attacked. By the time a trio of werewolves charged at me, the ground was littered with the bodies of wolves Id slain.

The werewolves were even more affected by Maxwells spell, as minds with higher intelligence were often more heavily affected by music. I attacked ruthlessly. Despite them being heavily debuffed, swaying in predictable manners, they were still powerful foes. I didnt focus on killing them outright, that was too hard. Instead, I disabled them one at a time.

When theyd swipe, I would try and cut off a hand or arm. As I dove past, I would cut into the legs aiming to slice them off. Arms and limbs fell around me, and before long, Id mostly dismembered the three werewolves. They howled in anger and pain.

Even with Maxwells help, the fight had been close. A balled fist had slammed into my shoulder, breaking bones, I lost part of the movement in my left arm.

Fortunately, I had magic that could fix that. Necromantic energy flew around me and repaired my broken shoulder. Healing myself was one of the few magics I allowed, but with the illusion spell, I could only manage it a few times.

Once the werewolves were fully disabled, I finished them off, not wanting to make them suffer any more than they had to.

The extended fight took longer than anticipated. Monsters kept trickling in, and Maxwell was forced to start his songs over several times. The lull between when the song ended and started again had been the most dangerous time. In one of those lulls, a werewolf had attacked right as the song ended, and it had thrown off my attack as the debuffs wore off.

The werewolf slashed with brutal claws that shredded my already tattered clothes. I dodged to the side and cut out his hamstrings with a lucky blow. After that, I dispatched it quickly.

When Maxwell was wrapping up the fourth iteration of the song, we finally ran out of creatures to fight. The clearing around the large tree Maxwell had climbed was clogged with wolf and werewolf bodies hacked to pieces. My guess was wed killed close to a dozen werewolves and twice as many wolves.

That worked well, I said. Though I was tired, thanks to my undead nature I didnt need to gasp for breath.

Id say so, Maxwell agreed. I gained almost two full levels from that.

Same here. Im most the way to level fifty now.

I opened my character sheet and assigned the five new stat points, adding them to my vitality. Though it was by far my highest stat, the last thing I wanted was to risk dying in this world where I only had limited respawns.

An ominous howl echoed through the forest.

Im guessing thats the alpha, I said. Shall we go say hello?

Of course, we should, Maxwell laughed and hopped down from the tree. I have the perfect song in mind to greet him with.